‘Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ Trailer Is Dark & Disturbing — Watch

These monkeys are terrifying! The ‘Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ trailer has arrived, and it promises a much darker, more intense experience than the 2011 James Franco film that preceded it.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the upcoming sequel to the 2011 James Franco origin flick Rise of the Planet of the Apes, looks jarringly different from its predecessor — in a good way! The brand new trailer jumps eight years ahead to a terrifying future, in which a small band of human survivors prep for a deadly war with a formidable gang of genius monkeys. Check out the trailer below!

‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Trailer: A Superior Sequel?

Okay, so this one looks much more fun than the last one. James’ origin story had its interesting points, but the sequel will finally capture the horrifying battle between the dying human race and the very intelligent (and very angry) apes that (SPOILER ALERT) will probably end up turning us all into slaves, if they stick to the original Charlton Heston films’ mythology. Yikes!

James doesn’t appear in the sequel, so it’s safe to assume that his scientist character died from that virus that, you know, wiped out most of the human race after the first movie. Gary Oldman takes the reins instead, playing a man named Dreyfus who leads a band of survivors. Dreyfus addresses those survivors at the beginning of the trailer, essentially summing up the eight years we’ve missed since Rise:

“We’ve been through hell together,” he says. “We spent four years — four years — fighting that virus, and then another four fighting each other. It was chaos. But you all know what we’re up against.”

Then we finally get to see James’ old buddy Caesar, the super-intelligent ape who has become the vicious ruler of an army of monkeys. Should be the perfect summer popcorn flick, no?

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens on July 11, 2014. In the meantime, check out the trailer and let us know your thoughts in the comments!